PINE. 219 



which are sweet like almonds, with a slight flavour of turpen- 

 tine, and are eaten throughout Italy ; the Frankincense Pine, (P. 

 Tceda,) valuable for its timber and resin, and several others. 

 The Larches very properly constitute a distinct genus, Larix ; 

 L. communis yields the Venice turpentine. 



General Uses. This tree affords the red or yellow deal of 

 the north of Europe, and is esteemed next in value to the 

 Larch. The wood is employed in making masts, rafters, floors, 

 wainscoats, tables, and for numerous other purposes. It is 

 also burnt as firewood, and forms excellent charcoal. In the 

 highlands of Scotland the roots are used by the poor as a sub- 

 stitute for candles. The tops or young shoots are given to ani- 

 mals during the winter season instead of fodder. The outer 

 bark is employed in tanning leather, and the inner rind is some- 

 times converted into ropes. The bark-broed of the Laplanders 

 is made from the inner bark of this tree, in the following man- 

 ner : " they select the loftiest trees, and those which are least 

 branched and contain least resin ; the dry and scaly outer bark 

 is completely removed, and the inner soft, white, and succulent 

 bark is alone selected: (this operation, therefore, is at that 

 season of the year when the alburnum is soft, and easily sepa- 

 rates from the wood). When required for use, it is slightly 

 roasted over burning coals, then broken in pieces and ground 

 to powder or flour ; this flour being mixed with water, forms a 

 very limp kind of bread, which is baked in an oven, and forms, 

 not unfrequently, part of their food for a year together. The 

 Novaccolae also fatten their pigs upon this substance *. 



The trunk and branches afford ttirpentine, resin, tar, &c, the mode of 

 obtaining which is subjoined. Lamp-black, so frequently used in the arts, 

 is made from the dregs left in the preparation of tar, the smoke of which, 

 ascending through a horizontal chimney, enters a kind of box, pierced with 

 holes at the top, and covered with a sort of linen cone where it deposits the 

 soot. 



Turpentine, the produce of the Scotch Pine, is more coarse and dense 

 than any other sort ; it has an opaque light brown colour ; its consistence 

 is that of honey, and the taste is bitterish, acrid, hot, and unpleasant. Those 

 trees which are most exposed to the sun and have the thickest bark yield it 

 in the greatest abundance. The time of procuring it is from May to Sep- 



* Linnaei Flora Lapp. ed. Smith, p. 285. 



